


Becoming Tame

by Shanoodle



Category: Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushuu | EarthBound
Genre: Animal Abuse, Animal Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 03:26:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3835222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shanoodle/pseuds/Shanoodle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ness fights his first enemy, but it affects the kid in a way he didn't expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Becoming Tame

I didn’t know exactly where it was hiding. What I did know was that it started after me the second I couldn’t see the house anymore. Though I’d avoided lots of snakes and batted away lots of crows the night before, I never expected this one.

A dog charged down the path, growling as though I were invading their territory. Sunlight caught their eyes; they were stretched wide and focusing right on me. My body froze up. The hold I had on my bat loosened; a good bump would’ve made me drop it.

They kept closing in, and my legs wouldn’t move. Even if they did, I’d never get far in the shape I was in. Instead, I raised my bat. Maybe I could scare it away.

My opponent leapt forward, snapping their jaws. I sidestepped the attack and took a swing. The bat landed and cracked against their head like someone breaking a stick. Yelping, the dog thudded onto the ground. And they didn’t get up.

I couldn’t say how long I stood there, watching them twitch and spasm and finally stop moving. A pool of blood spread across the ground beneath their head. Some kind of emptiness formed in my stomach and threatened to swallow me.

_I didn’t even hit them that hard,_  I thought.  _They_   _can’t be dead._

But it was. I killed an animal. For all I knew, they could have belonged to someone. What if their owners came and saw their pet lying like this? How would they react? I’d bet I’d want the person responsible thrown in jail if it were my dog. I would never believe that some cosmic horror was making King violent.

It was the truth, though. If I wanted to save the world, I would have to fight more. Giygas would make it as difficult as possible – try to wear me down. Maybe he thought I wouldn’t actually fight back, or maybe he thought one death would frighten me enough into quitting. Well, my hands might have been shaking, but that didn’t mean I was going to stuff them in my pockets and head back home and wait for Earth to die. I would fight, and in the end, I would win.

I did what I could to bury the body, and afterwards, I started down the path toward town. Dogs howled and barked in the distance.


End file.
